Plants

Just as birders can identify birds by their melodious calls, David George Haskell can distinguish trees by their sounds. The task is especially easy when it rains, as it so often does in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Depending on the shapes and sizes of their leaves, the different plants react to falling drops by producing “a splatter of metallic sparks” or “a low, clean, woody thump” or “a speed-typist’s clatter.” Every species has its own song. Train your ears (and abandon the distracting echoes of a plastic rain jacket) and you can carry out a botanical census through sound alone.

My experiences with Trillium1 this spring have left me with many thoughts, not only about how I engage with other life forms, but also about resilience and possibilities for healing from the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fractures that life in this material dimension of Earth imposes at times.